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Erbil (Hawler), the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, sits on a plain at the foot of the Zagros mountains in the north of Iraq, at around 390 metres above sea level and approximately 36.19°N, 44.01°E. Its northern, slightly elevated position gives it a hot semi-arid climate (Köppen BSh) — with very hot, dry summers but genuinely cool, wetter winters, quite unlike the searing Iraqi south.
Summer, from June to September, is long, very hot and bone dry, with July and August the hottest — highs regularly around 43–44°C — though humidity stays very low, so the heat is dry rather than oppressive, and the nights cool more than in the lowlands. Rain is essentially absent for months, and the shamal wind can raise dust across the plain.
Winter, from December to February, is cool and comparatively wet, with January the coolest month — highs around 12–13°C and nights near or a little below freezing. Rain falls on many days, sunny spells alternate with cloudy, unsettled weather, and snow is possible, blanketing the Zagros mountains that rise just to the north and east of the city.
Erbil receives around 400–450 mm of precipitation a year — considerably more than southern Iraq, thanks to its northern position near the mountains — concentrated between November and April, while it almost never rains from June to September. Live rainfall, humidity, and pressure readings for the city are shown in the panels above.
Erbil's position at the foot of the Zagros gives Iraqi Kurdistan a very different climate from the rest of the country: cooler, wetter winters with snow on the nearby peaks, and summers that, while ferociously hot, are drier and cool more at night. The spring snowmelt in these mountains is what swells the Tigris and Euphrates each March to May.
To follow any single measurement in Erbil more closely, use our live instruments: the online barometer for atmospheric pressure, the thermometer for temperature, the hygrometer for humidity, the anemometer for wind speed, the wind vane for wind direction, and the rain gauge for rainfall.